Piracy will find a way. Torrents (and to a lesser extent, Kazaa, Limewire, Napster) brought piracy to the masses, but it'll always exist in some form.

The best hope of legitimizing and monetizing the casual pirates is to provide a better service than piracy can possibly provide. Instant, high definition streams that are easily searchable, integrated with multiple devices (TV, phone, tablet) and persistent (so you can tell what you've watched or where you were in an episode) for a few bucks a month are a lot more appealing to most people than torrenting something. Someone will still do it, some just like the idea of it, but for the average person, if it's priced properly, the convenience is worth the cost.

Instant, high definition streams that are easily searchable, integrated with multiple devices (TV, phone, tablet) and persistent (so you can tell what you've watched or where you were in an episode) for a few bucks a month

Comcast's online streaming service provides exactly this. It comes free with their cable package, but unfortunately they don't offer a way to buy it separately. Also, a "few bucks a month" is a ridiculously low price for such a service, wouldn't you say?

Just like Spotify Premium has essentially cut my music piracy to near zero due to ease of use and selection. However I fear the movie and TV studios still haven't suffered to the point where they are willing to put together a comprehensive service offering everything in one place for a reasonable fee...

Therefore, Pirate them until they have no choice...or just continue to pirate because it's the best offered service right now.

Found the problem. Many people who pirate do have or could easily afford Netflix but choose not to use it because you are only borrowing the content and being dependent on Netflix's infrastructure (reminiscent of Real Player buffering levels sometimes).

This. The only way to watch GoT legally in Australia is to pay too much for terrible pay-tv, or buy from iTunes etc. This past season they were putting episodes up on iTunes (almost) as they were released in the US, so was more than happy to pay. Fox has blocked this for the next season however, so suddenly it looks like a far less appealing option.

I feel like it could be compared to guns.. once man created guns, there was no going back, unfortunately. Even if there were strict gun laws, people will find a way. (except in Australia where people are just chill as FUCK).

I hate platitudes like "Welcome to America" like you're revealing some new revelation to the rest of us ignorant sheeple. We get it. Shit's not good here. We're working on it. When you imply that that's how it is and that's how it's going to be, you really just worsen the situation.

Maybe this will push HBO to eventually offer a Netflix type subscription for HBOGO for people who don't want a cable/satellite provider. On another note, I had no idea HBO was affiliated with Time Warner.

I don't know all the details, but I suspect US cable companies would probably revolt en masse if they offered this option. I suspect the subscription channels keep quite a number of people plugged in. I would cancel TW tomorrow if HBO and Showtime had what you describe.

They're trying this overseas. And it seems obvious on some level they developed HBOGO to try out the streaming market.

But it's unlikely they go to a streaming pay service anytime soon. HBO is a loss leader for cable companies. It gets people to get cable and buy bundles. Letting it go ala carte would destroy their model.

It'll be interesting over the next decade or so as way people receive and consume content changes, but by the time it all plays out GOT will probably be done.

At least they're seeing the bright side of things, but again if the show got cancelled because of low ratings after the first season and still held the same title, I bet they'd be whistling a different tune.

HBO Nordic is not the same as HBO in the US. If I want to get HBO I have to buy a full cable or satellite package. If you knew how much that would cost me (I originate from Sweden so I have a good idea) you would cry, especially considering the shitty Comcast internet that I have.

So no, torrents don't sell HBO in the US. It's cheaper to buy a new big screen TV AND the blu-rays each year.

We can compare HBO's subscriber count (ie. this among others) to torrent stats.

Just because people are willing to pay $8/mo for Netflix (primarily old content) does not mean they're going to pay $8/mo for every show they want to watch. They're going to pay $8/mo for netflix and then justify their piracy with "well why isn't it on netflix?" or "well IF it had a standalone I'd purchase it" (no they wouldn't).

The # of people without cable (ie. who CAN'T get HBO b/c they don't have cable in the first place) is still minimal, so you're looking at people who literally choose to pirate over subscribing to HBO.

Well Hostel II was at one point the most torrented movie of all time and Eli Roth blamed it for the movie "under-performing" in the theaters, in the Internet's defense tho everyone was merely reimbursing themselves for paying to see the first one.

Then there was the DVD rip copy of Taken that was out almost a full year before it hit the States and it still made a killing in the US box office it's entire run, despite it being a toned down version of the movie. So maybe Eli Roth can explain that one.

They removed or changed parts of the torture scene where Liam Neeson has the guy tied to the chair in the abandoned apartment/office building. There may have been some other altered scenes, I'm not sure, but that scene I know they changed for the original US release (I think to get a PG-13 rating instead of an R). I have the unrated version on Blu-ray though, which has all the original scenes on it, and it's really not that much different.

Was Hostel 2 leaked in full quality or a bootleg vid? I cant see anyone being satisfied with a bootleg copy unless it was a real shitty movie they were better off without seeing in the first place.

Either way, you cant ignore the word of mouth that takes place when you have people downloading your stuff. I know if I were a musician and I had a lot of people downloading my album Id be ecstatic. A lot more than I would be if it had zero seeders zero leechers. I cant tell you how many people Ive turned on to Game of Thrones.

What I got from a quick glimpse of a Google search was that an unfinished/work copy of the movie was leaked online and Eli Roth blames the Internet. Again tho, Drive and the Rob Zombie Halloween remake had slightly to significantly different work copies leaked and they still performed well in theaters. It was merely that the popularity of "torture porn" was dying out, but blaming pirating is just easier.

I found out about Game of Thrones because it was a top torrent on TPB. I had no idea what i was downloading at the time and was sold after the first episode. It was an amazing thing finding an actual video that truly entertained me in this way, while there are other shows, GoT blew me away.
After 3 episodes i ordered all the books discovering i already bought A Dance with Dragons and hadn't read it yet. I finished reading all 5 of them before the 2nd season started. The books were as amazing as the series! season 2 was as awesome to watch as the first one!
Now while all this was happening i got most of my friends watch it and some to read the books.
While it's currently not readily available where i live right now i'll buy the entire series on dvd when i come across it. not just because it's an amazing show, but because i don't want the same thing to happen to this show as it happened to Rome(which i also recommend).
PS: my friend watched season 3 while his girlfriend wasn't a fan(and pregnant) he finally convinced her to watch along side him and bang! red wedding. She's not a fan.

Season 3 covers a little over half of A Storm of Swords. As you have already realised, you missed ALOT of important things by going straight to A Feast for Crows. But in general you will still be lost if you skip any books because theres a considerable amount of difference between the shows and books.

Fourth book was terrible. First 3 were fantastic. The fourth is like reading 1000 pages of Facebook postings by the characters you don't care that much about. I read the first 3 in a few weeks. It took me almost a year for the fourth and I nearly gave up.

well, where i live bookstores sell books in a different language then english. imagine your local library stocked with books, some written by talented writers(Pieter Daens by Louis Paul Boon is a personal recommended book in my native language) while most are just(as the fashion is now) shitty tv cooks, lived down national celeberties, and other shit noone glued to a tv, radio or whatever would read, while picking thru their shit there are some good books, but i really like reading in english more, so i redirect myself about 40 km to a bookstore that has about 4m² stocked with english books! their stock gets refreshed demi yearly. so that's 3 stephen king books whatever hits on 100 times best selling and 50 shades of grey stacked next to twilight and harry potter, I found dance with dragons hard cover and i enjoyed the cover. this moment i'm looking at it, it's next to my copy of the wise man's fear, an even better english book i found there! i read it before i even know about name of the wind and fuck me if i never read doors of stone.

It's more relevant? I think that's a pretty poor choice of words. Relevant to what? Because when talking about the way he was killed specifically, it's definitely more relevant to say he had molten gold poured over his head. In the context of his death in relation to the legend of the Targaryens however, it's certainly more relevant to talk about him dying by fire in principal. Significant, important, meaningful, crucial would all be better words than 'relevant'.

I put my money where my mouth is: I may download the episodes as they come out, but I also buy the Blu-ray boxed sets with actual real money dollars. I am not at all interested in a cable subscription, but BOY GOLLY am I interested in HBO continuing to make this show.

"Quality" is in the eyes of the beholder. If a lot of people are watching something, presumably they're finding qualities in it they find appealing. I find it pretty arrogant the way people will dismiss the tastes of millions of people.

Fun story, I had a tour guide, I won't share his name, when I visited the Warner Bros. studio in LA last week. Warner Bros. owns HBO, so some of the tour had to do with HBO shows (Band of Brothers, Game of Thrones, etc.).

The tour guide started out the tour with "Does anyone know what the most pirated show ever is?" and I answered "GoT". He said "This guy knows where to get it"

Later after the tour ended we were talking and I said "Yeah I have torrented it but it didn't work" (which was true" then he gave me some recommendations of where to stream it online for free haha. Cool guy.

Just because copyright holders have gotten to decide in the past how their IP is distributed doesn't mean it should always be that way. If they're going to contribute to the culture, they ought to accept that the culture may consume their ideas in unexpected or unapproved ways. You really think somebody else should be allowed to dictate how you entertain yourself?

Torrenting is popular, and it makes pirating easy. But it's only piracy when a torrent isn't accepted as a distribution medium. Media creators mostly refuse to even try to innovate some way of incorporating a popular and technologically advanced into their strategies. What you're really saying is that this is acceptable--that they have no obligation to even try to accept or advance a technology that a large number of people have.

Yes, someone should dictate how you entertain yourself. You think the makers of GOT make it out of the kindness if their hearts and not to get paid? Not saying I don't torrent but jeez that is a stupid argument.

Just because copyright holders have gotten to decide in the past how their IP is distributed doesn't mean it should always be that way. If they're going to contribute to the culture, they ought to accept that the culture may consume their ideas in unexpected or unapproved ways.

Why not? If I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on making, say, a video game or a movie, then why shouldn't I be allowed to control how it's distributed? How I want to make my money? I don't see why you're entitled to consume media the way you want just because you label it as 'culture'.

You really think somebody else should be allowed to dictate how you entertain yourself?

That's not at all what I said. You can entertain yourself however you want, but I don't see why it's unfair that someone who spent time and money on something is allowed to choose how to make money off of that.

Torrenting is popular, and it makes pirating easy. But it's only piracy when a torrent isn't accepted as a distribution medium.

Obviously, what's your point?

Media creators mostly refuse to even try to innovate some way of incorporating a popular and technologically advanced into their strategies. What you're really saying is that this is acceptable--that they have no obligation to even try to accept or advance a technology that a large number of people have.

Yes, I believe they have zero obligation to try to accept new technology. I'm not saying I feel bad for them or that their whiny complaints about piracy doesn't elicit facepalming in me, because they're too dumb or scared to adapt their business model in changing times, but you're still not justified in pirating just because media companies choose not to distribute media the way you want them to.

What's the best thing about ASOIAF is GRRM's ability to write characters as grey, and not black & white.

There are almost no "pure evil" characters, just as there are almost no "pure good". Most of them have good and bad qualities, and even horrible acts can make sense and seem less evil if you go by their motivation for it.

Eh, people have their tastes when it comes to stories. I could give or take Mad Men, for example. You can't discredit people for having a higher regard for a story then you do.

GOT is especially striking for me because of the epic scale of it. Many other "epic" fantasy stories start humbly and simply - a tale of one character whose decisions gradually begin to effect the entire world. (i.e. Sword of Truth, The Name of the Wind, and (arguably) LOTR.) From the beginning, GoT has no reservations about scope. Because, from the very beginning, you know whatever happens this is going to effect everyone. And I love that.

I live in the UK and watch GoT via Sky Atlantic, the rights holder over here. But AFAIK there's no way to stream or download the episodes in HD, and even if I could stream my broadband is so terrible that it'd be in 360p or some shit - same goes for Netflix. When there's a readily available alternative (TPB) that provides a download option in HD, of course I'm going to take it. But if Sky provided an official way of downloading what you're paying for I would go for that no question. They don't, so I pirate.